Originally Posted by
bedrock
Safety and China don't fit in the same sentence. I've been there several times in a previous life and this is what I saw and what occurred while i was there. On-ramps w/o guard-rails, chipping concrete off buildings several floors up over pedestrian heads. People running across highways pushing wheel barrows, welding w/o eye protection and above pedestrians, welding in a stairwell full of discarded newspapers and refuse, trucks spilling their contents on the road due to lack of or unlatched tailgates, exploding gas cylinders used for cooking, fire exits blocked with junk and old furniture, discovery that that a train trestle was made with improper concrete, medicines stored in very high temperatures which made loads of kids sick, live fowl stored in kitchens--avian flu 1. Rotting garbage everywhere and especially dumped on rooftops from other high rise buildings. And no. 1, a refrigerator discarded by dropping from the upper floor of a high-rise building!
Sadly, you can say ALL those things about India as well. Yet people LOVE to say how much we are falling behind those two developing nations. It's ALL perspective and based on context.
I know......I know.........SOMEONE is gonna chime in with "well, I've been to India AND China and I didn't see ANY OF THAT!!!!!!"
Get out of the touristy areas, get out of the shiny/window dressed areas and those that have economically benefitted.
That's like taking someone from outside the U.S. and showing them the nicest parts of Manhattan. THEN take them to what the South Bronx or Bed Stuy was, or whatever the crappiest areas of NYC are now days.